February 17, 201214 yr Is there a way without building a completely new machine to just absolutely start over? Back to where it starts up for the first time and takes hours and hours to write zeros to the new hard drives before it builds the new parity? I've used the New Config utility, but it doesn't seem to be writing out the old data like the initial setup did for the brand new drives. How do I completely blank slate start over?
February 17, 201214 yr Why? Just accessing each drive and deleting everything on each drive will accomplish the same thing with much less time and effort. If you must start over, you have to clear the MBR of every drive and then do the new config. And then unRAID still won't zero the drives, it will just create a new MBR and a new unRAID file system on each drive and then build the parity. If you just must have the drives all zero'd then you will have to use Joe L.'s preclear script to clear them. Peter
February 17, 201214 yr Is there a way without building a completely new machine to just absolutely start over? Back to where it starts up for the first time and takes hours and hours to write zeros to the new hard drives before it builds the new parity? I've used the New Config utility, but it doesn't seem to be writing out the old data like the initial setup did for the brand new drives. How do I completely blank slate start over? Just delete everything on your USB drive (back up *.key file if you have pro or plus license) then reinstall unRaid on the USB (copy *.key file back if you have one). Fresh Start
February 17, 201214 yr Author Nope, did that, and even tried changing the 2tb parity drive with the 2tb storage drive but it just went red dot and wouldn't work, so put it back how it was and it just reverted back to how it was with all the info still on the drive but for some reason I can't move or delete any of it, hence why I want a complete and utter restart, to write all the discs to zeros and start again.
February 17, 201214 yr If you only have 1 parity and 1 data then swap them and use the new config or the initconfig command. You should be more concerned with how you screwed up the disk so the data can't be moved or deleted. That really shouldn't just happen for no reason. If you are running the 5.0beta then you should be able to run the new permissions utility to give the files the proper permissions so they can be edited. You can log on to the server as root and cd /mnt/disk1 and then do a rm -r * and that should delete everything on the disk. Peter
February 17, 201214 yr Author Iv swapped them and used newconfig and it's starting up again, but the parity drive (the old data drive) has a red dot for some reason. This is what I did: I built a server with a 2tb parity and 80gb old ATA drive for data, put a film or 2 on it to see if it worked and it did, had the file on there and streamed it from the server to my mac. Then I bought a new 2tb drive and replaced the 80gb drive with it, it said it replaced the data from the old drive to the new drive but I haven't been able to access that film since the switchover, it's there and I can see it but if i try and play it it just hangs forever. I've tried the newconfig, reconfigured the drives but it isn't doing the write to zeros bit that happened the very first time i installed the 80gb drive. How do I completely start again and have that disk formatting section happen again? Also, I don't know what: "You can log on to the server as root and cd /mnt/disk1 and then do a rm -r * and that should delete everything on the disk." means, you'll have to explain it as if you were talking to a moron.
February 17, 201214 yr Iv swapped them and used newconfig and it's starting up again, but the parity drive (the old data drive) has a red dot for some reason. This is what I did: I built a server with a 2tb parity and 80gb old ATA drive for data, put a film or 2 on it to see if it worked and it did, had the file on there and streamed it from the server to my mac. Then I bought a new 2tb drive and replaced the 80gb drive with it, it said it replaced the data from the old drive to the new drive but I haven't been able to access that film since the switchover, it's there and I can see it but if i try and play it it just hangs forever. I've tried the newconfig, reconfigured the drives but it isn't doing the write to zeros bit that happened the very first time i installed the 80gb drive. How do I completely start again and have that disk formatting section happen again? Also, I don't know what: "You can log on to the server as root and cd /mnt/disk1 and then do a rm -r * and that should delete everything on the disk." means, you'll have to explain it as if you were talking to a moron. If you have a copy of the preclear script, just run preclear_disk.sh -z /dev/sdX where sdX = the three letter drive designation of each of your disks. Then, use the new-config button. They will all be seen as blank (the -z option overwrites the first sector of the disk with zeros, erasing the prior partitioning.) Joe L.
February 17, 201214 yr Author Yeah, I don't know what any of that means, this would require serious dumbing down for me to understand. Also, I'm on a mac, don't know if that's going to make a difference.
February 17, 201214 yr if you are bound and determined to wipe everything just put the drive in a Mac (id you can) and run disk utility on it. Just format the drive as FAT then put it back in the unRAID machine.
February 17, 201214 yr Author Oh I didn't think that through, no way of attaching it without some adapter cable, its only a mac mini, doesn't even have eSATA.
February 17, 201214 yr 1) Write down the serial number of the disk that contains data 2) Plug the flash drive into your mac mini. Follow the directions here to reformat your flash drive (if you have paid for unRAID, be sure to back up the .key file in the config folder first). 3) Boot your server from the fresh new flash drive. 4) Assign the drive that contains data as your parity drive (use the serial number to make sure it is the right drive). Assign the other drive as data disk1. 5) Click 'I'm sure I want to do this' then 'Start' to start a parity sync. Wait for it to finish (it will take 8+ hours). 6) Once the parity sync is done, click 'Check' to run a parity check. Wait for it to finish (it will also take 8+ hours). Done!
February 17, 201214 yr Also, I don't know what: "You can log on to the server as root and cd /mnt/disk1 and then do a rm -r * and that should delete everything on the disk." means, you'll have to explain it as if you were talking to a moron. Maybe you should do some reading on the linux "cd" and "rm" commands then. Connect a monitor, keyboard and mouse or figure out how to use a telnet program to connect to the server from your Mac and do some playing. Peter
February 17, 201214 yr Author Yep, did that before, when I swap the serial numbers and replace the parity drive with the data drive and run a parity sync, it stops after 5 mins and goes red dot, and when I put it back how it was, it runs the 8 hour sync but after that there is still old data on the drives that I can't access or delete. i just want a clean wipe, completely start over with the initial write to zeros bit that happened when i first plugged in my 80gb drive, it reformatted it and took hours and hours, but there is no option to do that again. I think reformatting the drive in disk utility may work but I'm going to need to connect a sata hdd to a mac mini which only has USB 2.0, firewire and thunderbolt ports.
February 17, 201214 yr ok...you can't switch the 2 drives since you have a 2tb & 80gB drive....so parity has to be the 2tb. check out http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=13054.0 and get the pre-clear script stop your array unassign the drives telenet (or monitor/keyboard) to unix prompt then use the preclear script to wipe out your drives
February 17, 201214 yr You may have a bad drive. See here: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Troubleshooting#Obtaining_a_SMART_report
February 18, 201214 yr Author If you have a copy of the preclear script, just run preclear_disk.sh -z /dev/sdX where sdX = the three letter drive designation of each of your disks. Then, use the new-config button. They will all be seen as blank (the -z option overwrites the first sector of the disk with zeros, erasing the prior partitioning.) Joe L. I tried this, it didn't work, so I've tried preclear_disk.sh -A /dev/sda and it's taking ages, am I going to be able to close the puTTY session on windows on my mac and log off or have I got to leave windows on for 30 hours or however long its going to take to clear a 2tb disk?
February 18, 201214 yr If you have a copy of the preclear script, just run preclear_disk.sh -z /dev/sdX where sdX = the three letter drive designation of each of your disks. Then, use the new-config button. They will all be seen as blank (the -z option overwrites the first sector of the disk with zeros, erasing the prior partitioning.) Joe L. I tried this, it didn't work, so I've tried preclear_disk.sh -A /dev/sda and it's taking ages, am I going to be able to close the puTTY session on windows on my mac and log off or have I got to leave windows on for 30 hours or however long its going to take to clear a 2tb disk? To completely run a preclear on a 2TB drive takes quite a while. It is recommended procedure to weed out drives which might fail in the first few hours AND it prevents a lengthy down-time when adding an additional drive to an existing parity protected array. You can shorten the time needed a bit by simply skipping the pre-read and post-read phases, but it is those that detect the un-readable sectors. If you simply want to delete your existing files that already exist on those drives, and not test for un-readable sectors, you can manually re-format them mkreiserfs /dev/sdX1 (making sure to specify the first partition by adding "1" to the name of the base drive.) The formatting will only take a few minutes.
February 18, 201214 yr Author ok so how do i stop this preclear, and is that: preclear_dish.sh mkreiserfs /dev/sdX1 or just: mkreiserfs /dev/sdX1 that's probably a stupid question but I know nothing about this stuff, and what do you mean by specify the first partition? is that so it only splits the drive into 1 partition instead of say 2 or 3? again apologies for my level of incompetency.
February 18, 201214 yr ok so how do i stop this preclear, Type Control-C and is that: preclear_dish.sh mkreiserfs /dev/sdX1 No or just: mkreiserfs /dev/sdX1 Yes that's probably a stupid question but I know nothing about this stuff, and what do you mean by specify the first partition? is that so it only splits the drive into 1 partition instead of say 2 or 3? again apologies for my level of incompetency. File systems are created on partitions. You must partition a drive before creating a partition on it. Since your drives are already partitioned, with a single partition, as unRAID expects it, you must specify it by adding the number "1" to the base name of the drive. If the drive is /dev/sdg, then the first partition on that drive is /dev/sdg1. If your drives were not partitioned, unRAID would partition them for you when you assign them to its array. Joe L.
February 18, 201214 yr Author ok I did what you said for both drives: sda1 and sdb1 and it took about 4 seconds, is that right? seems a little short to completely wipe a drive.
February 18, 201214 yr ok I did what you said for both drives: sda1 and sdb1 and it took about 4 seconds, is that right? seems a little short to completely wipe a drive. What command did you type? I've given you several alternatives over the past few days? Nothing I have given you will completely clear a drive EXCEPT using the preclear_disk.sh script, and that takes about 8 hours at the least if skipping all but the zeroing. Creating a file-system typically takes a few minutes. Writing the MBR, a few seconds. What exact commands did you type? I've got this strange feeling you'll be lamenting when the first disk has any issue, but we'll see. Nobody is a mind-reader. Please post details, or your help will quickly loose patience in asking.
February 18, 201214 yr Author no i realised after it wasn't actually finished it just said 100% so i assumed it finished, but after about 5 minutes it said completed. it was the mkreiserfs /dev/sda1 script and after doing that I did a newconfig and now I'm running a new parity sync, still hasn't given me the original option of writing the new hard drives to zeros but maybe that won't matter and they'll be clear anyway and ready to start again.
February 18, 201214 yr no i realised after it wasn't actually finished it just said 100% so i assumed it finished, but after about 5 minutes it said completed. it was the mkreiserfs /dev/sda1 script and after doing that I did a newconfig and now I'm running a new parity sync, still hasn't given me the original option of writing the new hard drives to zeros but maybe that won't matter and they'll be clear anyway and ready to start again. Drives are never cleared on an initial config of an array. They are simply read and parity calculated based on what is read. Only after parity is established are subsequent drives that are added to the existing array cleared. Good luck with your array. You must never use the mkreiserfs command on the /dev/sdX1 disk assigned in the array again now that you've assigned drives. If you do, you'll corrupt parity. Forget you were ever shown that command. Joe L. (Why do I feel like I've just given matches and dynamite to a teen-age kid, warning them to not use them is not likely to help.??)
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